Month: July 2014

There are many posts on knitting blogs about how to avoid pooling and weird designs using self-striping and hand-dyed yarns. Many blogs will talk about how to make sure your socks match when you’re finished.

This post is for those of us who shudder at such concerns. I don’t want my socks to match completely! I can buy matching socks in the store. I have nothing against making matching socks on purpose or on accident, but one of the things I like best when hand-knitting socks is just letting the yarn decide for itself what the socks will look like.

Yes, I also love to make Fair Isle designs on some socks and have the socks match. I also don’t mind knitting socks in solids that I find appealing. I’m not here to say people who want their socks to match or who hate pooling are crazy, obsessive-compulsive freaks. Heck, I’d be happy to join them during those times I’m knitting a pair of socks for someone who wants the socks to match. . .

I’m saying that it’s also okay to just let the socks happen. I feel the same way about some of the sweaters I’ve knitted with variegated yarn. Some of the pooling that has occurred in those sweaters looks great to me. Non-knitters sometimes think I did the pooling on purpose and think I’m a genius.

So if you feel the way I do, it’s okay to relax now and stop feeling guilty. Stop feeling like you’re somehow being lazy or cutting corners. Knitting is art! It can be carefully planned and designed or it can be more organic and chaotic. And in knitting, if you’re not having fun, that’s the only time you’re truly doing something wrong.